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Monday 19 October 2009
Two officials and worker sacked over ashes scandal
A crematorium worker and at least two officials in Liaoning have been sacked for their roles in giving strangers’ ashes to families of the dead, the China News Service said.
Two officials and worker sacked over ashes scandal
Choi Chi-yuk 19 October 2009
A crematorium worker and at least two officials in Liaoning have been sacked for their roles in giving strangers’ ashes to families of the dead, the China News Service said.
According to an official investigation report made public on Friday, Hao Liping, the director of civil affairs bureau of Tieling city’s Qinghe district and her deputy Meng Xianning have been fired for lax supervision on cremation works. The public crematorium at the centre of the scandal is in the district.
Ning Lin , who tended the furnace at the crematorium, has been sacked for knowingly handing the wrong remains to at least four families.
The investigation report said that several party officials who oversaw crematorium operations have also been fired and would face the party’s disciplinary punishment, but did not give details. Services at the funeral home have also been suspended until its management loopholes can be plugged, the report said.
The ashes-swapping scandal came to light on October 11, when the family of Li Eshan, 82, received an urn of ashes even before the cremation was completed.
Upon learning the news, about 1,000 angry residents whose relatives had been cremated in the Qinghe funeral home in the past two years stormed the government office and beat up the crematorium’s director.
The protesters’ clash with hundreds of riot police was reported by the Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis News the next day.
A task force comprising members of the party disciplinary watchdog, the law enforcement department and the civil affairs bureau was set up on the same day to investigate the mix-up, the China News Service said.
The team concluded that the case of the wrong remains was an “isolated incident”, and singled out Ning - who gave the urn to the Li family filled with other people’s ashes - blaming him for violating regulations to save time, so that he could have a meal with others.
The official report said Ning had dealt with the cremation of only four bodies after he started tending to the furnace on September 29, even though he had joined the crematorium in August 2007. There were no other instances of a mix-up, it said.
But a Tieling government official had suggested earlier that up to 2,800 families might have been given the wrong ashes over the past two years.
Ning, who was beaten up by indignant family members during the riot, had also been quoted as saying: “How come you hit me? I was only following orders. We’ve been doing this for the past two years.”
The probe report has been roundly criticised.
The Wuhan Evening News lashed out at the local administration in Tieling for labelling the scandal as “an isolated case”, in the face of reports that said two baskets of human ashes were spotted at the crematorium.
Another commentator, Li Xin, writing on Hunan-based Rednet.com, said the case was only the tip of an iceberg in an industry that offers lucrative profits.
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Two officials and worker sacked over ashes scandal
Choi Chi-yuk
19 October 2009
A crematorium worker and at least two officials in Liaoning have been sacked for their roles in giving strangers’ ashes to families of the dead, the China News Service said.
According to an official investigation report made public on Friday, Hao Liping, the director of civil affairs bureau of Tieling city’s Qinghe district and her deputy Meng Xianning have been fired for lax supervision on cremation works. The public crematorium at the centre of the scandal is in the district.
Ning Lin , who tended the furnace at the crematorium, has been sacked for knowingly handing the wrong remains to at least four families.
The investigation report said that several party officials who oversaw crematorium operations have also been fired and would face the party’s disciplinary punishment, but did not give details. Services at the funeral home have also been suspended until its management loopholes can be plugged, the report said.
The ashes-swapping scandal came to light on October 11, when the family of Li Eshan, 82, received an urn of ashes even before the cremation was completed.
Upon learning the news, about 1,000 angry residents whose relatives had been cremated in the Qinghe funeral home in the past two years stormed the government office and beat up the crematorium’s director.
The protesters’ clash with hundreds of riot police was reported by the Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis News the next day.
A task force comprising members of the party disciplinary watchdog, the law enforcement department and the civil affairs bureau was set up on the same day to investigate the mix-up, the China News Service said.
The team concluded that the case of the wrong remains was an “isolated incident”, and singled out Ning - who gave the urn to the Li family filled with other people’s ashes - blaming him for violating regulations to save time, so that he could have a meal with others.
The official report said Ning had dealt with the cremation of only four bodies after he started tending to the furnace on September 29, even though he had joined the crematorium in August 2007. There were no other instances of a mix-up, it said.
But a Tieling government official had suggested earlier that up to 2,800 families might have been given the wrong ashes over the past two years.
Ning, who was beaten up by indignant family members during the riot, had also been quoted as saying: “How come you hit me? I was only following orders. We’ve been doing this for the past two years.”
The probe report has been roundly criticised.
The Wuhan Evening News lashed out at the local administration in Tieling for labelling the scandal as “an isolated case”, in the face of reports that said two baskets of human ashes were spotted at the crematorium.
Another commentator, Li Xin, writing on Hunan-based Rednet.com, said the case was only the tip of an iceberg in an industry that offers lucrative profits.
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